200 million years ago, as America split away from Europe and Africa, creating the Atlantic Ocean, volcanic lava surged up from deep magma to form the basalt cliffs above my kayak. These cliffs known here as East Rock, which I see from our house near Yale, are among a few visible remnants of the world's largest known outpouring of volcanic rock, the "Central Atlantic Magmatic Province," now visible also in parts of the Atlas mountains of Morocco and the Amazon basin of Brazil. Kayaking beneath East Rock, under blue autumn skies and red-yellow autumn leaves, can feel almost globally grand!

With Evgeny Vlasov (left), the great ranger of Kronotsky zapovednik (Кроноцкий заповедник), July 12, near the hut he built 27 years ago, above Death Valley and the Geyser River, with view north to volcano Kikhpinych (Кихпиныч), in Kronotsky Zapovednik [Кроноцкий заповедник], Kamchatka, Russia, July 12, 2012. (Click here for some of my articles on Russia's nature reserve [заповедник] system.)